In 2022, Hailey Baptiste, in an interview in Charleston, told Pam Shriver that every shot in tennis was executed better by ATP players. (She also revealed that he'd named her pet after one of the ATP's kings of sexism--a man who was given a pass throughout his career for that sexism.) No one noticed. Well, I did, and I reported on it, but Baptiste was/is hardly a tennis household name.
Now world number 2 Aryna Sabalenka has revealed that she prefers to watch men' tennis; she stated that there was more strategy in the men' game and that she finds it more interesting to watch. Now three (so far) camps have formed on X: those who think that Sabalenka has betrayed the WTA, those who think that' it's ridiculous to ever watch women's tennis, and those who think that women' tennis is fine, but that it's more exciting to watch players who are faster and stronger.
The second camp has always been with us and always will be. But, as I said to someone in the third camp (and yes, it was a total waste of my time to say it), the belief that stronger and faster, i.e., male attributes, are "better" is a a product of socialization. What if we were taught that crafty and flexible were "better"? Or that the greatest skill lies in playing while sitting down and rolling on wheels?
The second camp (and perhaps some in the third) rely on the "a man could beat Serena Williams" argument. Well, duh. Men are physically stronger--haven't they heard? The reason that I hated the Battle of the Sexes and wish that Billie Jean King had never participated in it is that it promoted the idea that tennis is tennis, when actually, men's and women's tennis are very different from one another. King shouldn't have had to defeat a man to prove that she was an elite athlete. Yet the same people who like to remind us that men and women are different seem to forget that when it comes to sport.
I wish that Sabalenka hadn't said what she said, but she's never had much of an editor, so it wasn't a surprise. I've never believed that stronger and faster is "better;" my favorite player of all time to watch was Aga Radwanska. I appreciate and enjoy (most of the time) hard hitting, but I don't consider it to be superior hitting.
I used to watch a lot of ATP matches, but I don't now--not because of the tennis--which I enjoy--but because so many of the players are so sexist, and I don't enjoy watching people who consider me inferior.
The Sabalenka comment will be a thing for a while, and then fans and so-called fans will move on to something else. But the belief that male attributes are always superior to female attributes will, I'm afraid, not fade away.
4 comments:
Great points, Dianne. I really appreciate the way you explained it all. Especially the fact that what is better is determined by socialization. If you have time, I would like you to comment on Aryna's statements and write a similar post as a guest on my blog. I feel you are the biggest expert in these topics and it would be good to have more eyes on your views.
Also a great time to remind everyone that 4 ATP players are currently facing domestic abuse accusations : Alexander Zverev, Nick Kyrgios, Thiago Seyboth Wild and Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Thanks--I think that people need do need to be reminded of this.
Forgot to take off the "Anonymous" in my previous comment (sorry)...People (including the media) need to be reminded of this indeed and people (including the media) should stop looking up to and defending violent men and domestic abusers!
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